 15 common spelling mistakes that even native English speakers make from espressoenglish.net English spelling can be a real challenge. Because of the way the English language has changed over time, there are many irregularities and exceptions in the spelling. But although it's difficult, it's important to spell correctly because it gives a bad impression when there are spelling mistakes in your written English. So today you're going to learn 15 common spelling mistakes that even native English speakers make so you can be aware of them and avoid them. Before we get started, I want to remind you that you can get correction on your written English if you join my Advanced English Grammar course. Okay? So click on the link in the video if you're interested in that. Okay, let's look at these mistakes. The correct way to spell the word calendar is with A-R at the end. You might notice that when we pronounce it, calendar, it sounds like E-R, but when we write it, the correct way is to use A-R. Another commonly misspelled word is committee. It has two M's, two T's, and two E's. So don't forget any of those double letters. A good way to remember it is that the word committee refers to a group of people, and the word committee itself has three groups of double letters, double M, double T, and double E. A lot of people also make mistakes with the word curiosity. It's interesting because the adjective curious does contain the letter U, but the noun form curiosity does not. Notice that the strong syllable is also different when we pronounce it. The adjective form is curious. The first syllable is strong. He was a curious boy. And in the noun form curiosity, the third syllable is strong, us. His curiosity got him into trouble. Here's another word which you definitely shouldn't misspell. The word definitely does not have an A in it, okay? It's spelled with I's and E's, but not an A. If you make a mistake, you might be embarrassed. The word embarrassed has two R's and two S's. That's true for the word embarrassed, embarrassed, and embarrassing. All of them have two R's and two S's. English learners often get confused with the word 40. That's four zero. The word 40 does not have the letter U. The words four and fourteen both contain the letter U, but the word 40 does not. Here's another one, the word forward. Now some people pronounce it forward, and some people pronounce it more like forward. But when you're writing it, you need to include the R, F-O-R-W-A-R-D. Again, when speaking fast, we sometimes say it like forward, as if there wasn't that first R, but you need to write it with both R's. The words independent and independence end with E-N-T and E-N-C-E. There are no A's in the words independent and independence. Another tricky word is knowledge. Knowledge ends with D-G-E. So don't show your lack of knowledge by forgetting the D in the word knowledge. Other words that have the same D-G-E ending include bridge, judge, and pledge. Let's look at the word necessary. We only need one C and two S's in the word necessary. But in the word occurred and occurring, then we need two C's and two R's. Now the base form of this verb, occur, has two C's and just one R at the end. But when we add the E-D ending to make it in the past or the I-N-G ending to make it continuous, then we need to double the R so we get occurred and occurring with two C's and two R's. The word propaganda refers to content like articles, advertisements, or videos that are specifically made to convince you to think a certain way. The first part of this word is spelled P-R-O-P-A, propaganda, not P-R-O-P-O. Next we've got the word minuscule, which describes something that is very, very small. Now it sounds like minuscule when we pronounce it, so you might think it starts with M-I-N-I because we do use the prefix mini to talk about small versions of things, but minuscule starts with M-I-N-U. That word is not especially common, so let's go to one that is a lot more common. That's the word separate or separate. Now when the word is used as an adjective, then we pronounce it like separate. For example, men and women have separate bathrooms. And when it's used as a verb, then we pronounce it separate. For example, we need to separate the clean clothes from the dirty clothes. But in both cases, when used as an adjective and when used as a verb, it's spelled S-E-P-A-R-A-T-E. Okay, it's not spelled with an E in the middle. Finally, there's the word truly. So the adjective, true, has an E. True is spelled T-R-U-E. But the adverb truly does not have an E. Truly is T-R-U-L-Y. So don't make this common mistake when writing truly. How can you find out if you're making spelling mistakes? Well, computer programs like Microsoft Word and there's another program called Grammarly can help you, but they might not find all the errors. But in my Advanced English Grammar course, you can send me your writing and I'll correct it. I'll check for any mistakes in spelling, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. And I'll also tell you if there are expressions that you could use to sound more natural and improve your written English. Click on the link in the video for more information about the Advanced English Grammar course.